Dallas Cowboys fans have been known to describe themselves as blue-collar.

Few members of Cowboys Nation embody that description better than Mesquite resident Miguel Andrade.

His name might not ring a bell, but in his neighborhood, he is known by his residence: the Cowboys house.

The small brick house sporting a silver-and-blue paint job with the famous star precisely drawn on the siding sits on the corner of Longview and Royal Crest streets.

Andrade isn’t an architect, nor is he a carpenter. But the 51-year-old furniture salesman knows a thing or two about sports fandom.

In August, as the NFL preseason was getting under way, Andrade had some home improvements on his to-do list. The primary task was fixing the front entryway. What followed was a three-month game of personal one-upmanship.

“At the beginning of the season, I needed to remove the porch — and that was the start,” Andrade said.

So he tore down his green porch and old mailbox and decided to add some blue and a star built out of 2-by-4s to the patio.

That wasn’t enough.

“If I’m going to do it, I’m going to do it right,” Andrade said.

Carpenter or not, if asked the measurement of the interior angle of the star, he can tell you it’s 72 degrees.

“I never did it for attention; I just did it out of love,” Andrade said of his home.

The love of the game has been part of Andrade’s life for 35 years, since he immigrated to Texas from Durango, Mexico, as a teenager.

In Dallas, he had a chance to find a job and make a living while helping support his brothers and sisters back home.

“Where I came from, it was very poor,” Andrade said. “When you find something on the street, you would know who it belongs to.”

But on television every Sunday was a game played on a strangely marked field with 11 players in a line smashing into each other. Down and distance, penalty flags, tackles, touchdowns — the game was foreign, but something resonated with the young man.

It became an addiction, and for Miguel Andrade, the Cowboys of the late 1970s were a team of gods living in his new home.

“As I learned the rules, I fell in love with it more, and all of a sudden, I was a football fan, and a Cowboys fan,” Andrade said.

He took that fandom and ran with it, making the most of any opportunity to see the Cowboys. Money was tight, but he said the game offered relief for him.

It still does today.

“When I came here, the most important part of my life was my family in Mexico,” Andrade said.

But the three-hour escape on Sundays helped ease the challenges of adjusting to American life.

“I see life like a department store, and sports is your toy section,” said Andrade, a father of five. “If you don’t go to that department, life is miserable.”

With a curio cabinet full of Cowboys memorabilia, a vanity plate that reads VAQROS and a painted home exterior, it would make sense to assume every last penny of Andrade’s money goes to his Cowboys.

But he says he is quite thrifty, spending about $150 for his exterior project and then making discount purchases online for the other equipment.

His Troy Aikman jersey was $3.99. His Cowboys cuckoo clock cost a buck at a garage sale.

“My money belongs to my kids,” he said. “There was a guy who came to my work with a truck painted with pictures of the Cowboys, and he paid over $5,000 for the body.

“My boss said, ‘Nobody is a bigger fan than Miguel; he just has more money.’”

Andrade’s children worked alongside him through the late summer months and into the fall, painting the house that perfect shade of “Cowboys blue.” Andrade admits to not knowing the actual color name but can quickly spot it on a palette.

“I don’t know which is the right blue, but I know the right team.”

“I thought it was crazy at first, but it shows he went above and beyond,” said his son Miguel, 21. “My friends also like it.”

As cars drive by, the house seems to call to Cowboys fans; neighbors slow to a crawl or honk to show their support for the team.

“I like the attention and all, but I’m not a fanatic,” Andrade said.

He said he sees football like life, never dwelling too much on one play, one loss or one series of downs.

“When Romo throws an interception or bobbles the snap for the winning field goal, I take it — good or bad,” Andrade said. “Anything can happen on a Sunday, and I’ve seen it hundreds of times.

“So we lost, what’s the big deal?” he says with a shrug with his palms facing skyward — his trademark pose during any sports discussion.

The big deal to him is making sure that fun is a part of his life.

Whether it comes from a new porch, some attention from his neighbors or a Cowboys victory on Sunday, there is always something more to look forward to.

“This is the Cowboys house, my Cowboys house, and it will be the Cowboys house forever.”

To post a comment, log into your chosen social network and then add your comment below. Your comments are subject to our Terms of Service and the privacy policy and terms of service of your social network. If you do not want to comment with a social network, please consider writing a letter to the editor.